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She’s Lump

Remember that song from the ’90s? “She’s lump, she’s lump – she’s in my head.” That song has been stuck in my head lately and a few days ago I told my sister that it was my new theme song.

Long story, short: I’ve had a couple of lumps – one in my neck, one in my lower back – for a while (months or even years). The one in my lower back started bothering me recently, causing back pain whenever I’d bend to pick up a kid or toys or anything. I decided I should get it checked out and, while I was at it, should have the one in my neck checked out as well.

I went to the doctor (family practitioner) on Monday and found out that the lump in my neck is actually a normal-sized lymph node. Huh. I thought it felt large to me or in an odd place for a lymph node, but the doctor assured me it was normal. She said I could have a blood test to make sure everything was fine, but since I’m going back for my yearly physical and pap (whee) in February, I told her I’d just have blood drawn then. FWIW, I had two inflamed lymph nodes in my neck (that never went back down to normal size after I had an illness) removed about 10 years ago. They were benign.

As for the lump in my back (“It’s not a too-mah.” – Kindergarten Cop) – it’s actually a ligament that won’t relax. It’s wound up tight and is inflamed, etc. She recommends I start doing some stretches, more walking, and/or yoga or pilates to strengthen my core. And of course, bend at the knees when I pick up the kids or anything else (oops – hadn’t been doing that), and be more aware of my posture (which quite frankly is shit most of the time these days). She said while the pain is just an annoyance now, it could definitely get worse if I don’t start doing something about it. *Sigh*

So all in all the news was good in that I don’t have any tumors or anything (which definitely was a worry in the back of my mind). But I do need to take better care of my back and work on getting that ligament back to normal. Anybody have any suggested yoga poses to help with that?

The one good thing about this ligament issue is it’s giving me an excuse to hire someone to pick up all of the frozen dog poop in the backyard (that’s been accumulating and stuck in the snow for the past two months). Woot.

The fun (for me) news from my doctor’s appointment was that the doctor I saw (not my usual doctor) was 8 months pregnant. I hadn’t known she was expecting, so I made a comment along those lines and congratulated her. While she was updating my chart (I hadn’t been to the doctor since well before Julian was born), she noticed that it said I had HELLP syndrome with Ava. She asked me if I had it with my son and I replied no. She said she was just asking that for personal reasons because she has HELLP with her first and is, of course, hoping to avoid it this time around. I went on to tell her that not only did I not have HELLP, but that I had an amazing home birth and a surprise footling breech baby as well. She got quite excited over that news and commented that my midwife must have been very skilled. So I told her a bit more about the birth. I could’ve sat there and talked pregnancy and birth all day, but I knew we had to get on with my appointment, so I bit my tongue. I have to admit though that I enjoy telling doctors, especially those who attend births like she does as a family practitioner, that I had a breech birth. I think it’s good for them to know that breech births CAN and DO happen vaginally and that just because a baby is breech shouldn’t mean an automatic c-section.

Amy, Matt gets lumps like these in his back quite a bit. I think yoga definitely helps him a lot, but he also goes fairly regularly for osteopathic adjustment when it gets really tight. Email me if you’d like a rec for our osteo (in Bldr) but there’s that one that’s supposed to be really good in Lgmt too…

About me

My name is Amy and I've been blogging on CDG since 2005. A mama of two living in Colorado, I'm passionate about birth choices, attachment parenting, green living, urban homesteading, unschooling and other "crunchy" things.
I'm trying to change the world, one blog post at a time.
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